First time use - what am I doing wrong??

Mediaman09

Senior Member
I'm starting to practice with the new camera (before I head off on a cruise next week). I started with a fully charged battery and an empty 16GB card. I took 55 pics at dinner. I copied the pics to the computer ( USB cable to Win 7) and was quite surpised/dissapointed to see the following:

1) battery drained to 20%

3.JPG

2) Storage showing 1/3 full !! yet only showing 200MB used on the details! Are there hiddin files I inadertantly created??

1.JPG2.jpg 2.jpg

What am I doing wrong??
 

Eye-level

Banned
Have you read the recent thread where batteries need to be charged and discharged a few times in order to get them up to speed? Perhaps this is what is going on...

If the cruise is next week you better figure it out fast!

You must be shooting some big files to fill up that fast...
 
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Tobrew

Senior Member
55 photos shot in RAW on my D5100 average about 975mb total. Not really sure how you got up to 5GB with 55 photos. I would reformat the card IN THE CAMERA because it sounds like you got some extraneous data on there. Also keep in mind, video files will eat up a huge chunk of memory card space. I get about 900 photos on my 16GB card.
 
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fotojack

Senior Member
If you're using your camera to download your pics to the computer, you'll really drain the battery. Better to use a USB card reader to download to your computer.
In your camera, you have a setting for Large, Medium, and Small photo sizes. If you want a lot of pictures on a single card, use the Medium setting.
 

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
What brand of card? Did you know that there are counterfeit cards out there that will not have the memory they advertise? Where did you buy the card?
Are you shooting just raw, or raw+jpeg Lfine?

I'd check the card carefully if I were you, and buy a few spares for your cruise just to be on the safe side.
 

Mediaman09

Senior Member
Free space as reported on PC
All options are default
All I see on the card are JPG files...not shooting RAW ... menu setting says Image quality/ JPEG Normal
Card is Lexar from the largest most reptuable dealer in Toronto - I hightly doubt it counterfeit.

One observation - perhaps its a Windows 7 thing. Note the two screenshots in my OP. One says 5GB used... but the details on the DCIM folder shows 200MB used, which makes more sence. Why the difference?

Tried the ViewNX software for clues - its pretty useless, its getting removed.

I reformatted the card- seems normal now.. but I only have a few pics on it
I switched cards - also normal with a few pics - but that card was out of the box- not reformatted - but I will reformat it as well

Battery
I would imaging the auto focus has a big effect here, and I hear it going all the time when ready t take the shot. Is there a setting ( other than off on the lens) that I can play with re autofocus??
 
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Just-Clayton

Senior Member
Im agreeing with Jack. When the camera is hooked up via usb cord the battery drains even if you arent downloading. I was doing the same a few weeks ago and left it plugged in while looking at pictures. I went to take care of things and the battery was almost dead.
 

westmill

Banned
A new camera... mmmmm.... most people start taking a few pics and study and play... testing the flash... loads of time checking the
pics on the veiwer. The chances are, the camera did a lot more than just take pics. I think 9 times out of 10, people kind of forget
just how much they played with the new toy. I find using the veiwer to be the biggest drain. Ive never had a problem with batterylife
on the D300. A fresh battery runs all day and night with ease under normal use. I have two spare third party batterys as well that work
better and longer than the genuine artical and were very cheap. I doubt very much charging and disscharginging makes any differance.
Its prob more you simply play less ! As for the card, some come with junk on them. Some even have a program you can download for veiwing pics.
Just open it up on PC and delete all files :)
 

darlenec59

Senior Member
I am no pro but I use autofocus MOST of the time and take hundreds of pictures in a weekend and I can go two to three weeks before my battery indicator loses even one bar! So I doubt autofocus. Maybe, as someone else suggested, you are reviewing every picture as you take them, although I do a little bit of that too and still no battery problems. I agree about downloading from camera. Doesn't your computer have a slot you can stick your memory card in to download? I think most new computers do. My laptop does so I download all my pictures that way. I never hook up my camera to my computer. Just my two cents. Also, I have an 8GB card and shoot raw most of the time and I can fit about 450 pics. If I shoot JPEG at the highest quality, I can fit 1,000 pics on the card.
 
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Mediaman09

Senior Member
Im agreeing with Jack. When the camera is hooked up via usb cord the battery drains even if you arent downloading. I was doing the same a few weeks ago and left it plugged in while looking at pictures. I went to take care of things and the battery was almost dead.

This really sucks as all four transfer options have issues:
  1. USB cable - not good as it drains the battery
  2. Card reader - okay, but its a pain to have to remove and insert chips all the time
  3. Wifi adaptor Wu-1a - not compatible to D5100
  4. Eye-fi - not available in higher capacity faster memory cards.
Hmmm, very dissapointing for a Nikon.

I am hopeful that:
  • a future fimware issue with fix the battery problem
  • a future wi-fi-adaptor will be introduced
  • an improved selection of higher capacity faster memory eye-fi card will be made available
 
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pedroj

Senior Member
2 Card reader - okay, but its a pain to have to remove and insert chips all the time....I've been doing this for 10 years and didn't find it painful...I'm afraid some people have got to have a winge over something....What did you do with film..
 

Mediaman09

Senior Member
2 Card reader - okay, but its a pain to have to remove and insert chips all the time....I've been doing this for 10 years and didn't find it painful.....

Betcha you did not have Windows 7 ten years ago! I have

- an internal card reader on my Dell 9200
- an internal card reader in my Dell monitor
- a Lexar USB2.0 external card reader
- multiple SD card

I see a dozen removable drives, no way to disntinguish which is which, and none of which work. This is why I absolutely hate using the cards in the PC. I am an expert PC user ( since 1983).

So far, the only way to get photos off the 5100 is to charge the battery, use the USB cable, copy pics as quikcly as possble, and recharge the battery.

Not a happy customer. Currently very frustrated and dissapointed.

I of course dont blame Nikon for anythign Win 7 related, but there is no excuse why they cannot fix the battery problems, or provide a wi-fi adaptor.
 

Rick M

Senior Member
I use the usb cable all the time to xfer pics, It's only hooked up 2 or 3 minutes. I doubt that drains any more battery than viewing. I have not experienced any shorter battery life. I shoot hundreds of pics over 2-3 weeks and download often via usb, all within one charge.

There are many opinions on how to download, all have good and bad points. Constantly removing the card and plugging it into a reader, than back in the camera is a concern of some folks. It's a personal preference I guess.
 

Mediaman09

Senior Member
I use the usb cable all the time to xfer pics, It's only hooked up 2 or 3 minutes. I doubt that drains any more battery than viewing. I have not experienced any shorter battery life. I shoot hundreds of pics over 2-3 weeks and download often via usb, all within one charge.

There are many opinions on how to download, all have good and bad points. Constantly removing the card and plugging it into a reader, than back in the camera is a concern of some folks. It's a personal preference I guess.

Thanks, I think the cable is really my only option for now.

I wonder out loud if my issues with the card in the PC is because of formatting the card on the camera (as suggested earlier in this thread)....
 
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lee786

Senior Member
Card formatted with the camera uses fat32 file system is fully compatible with windows

I wouldn't take any notice of the battery level displayed in windows mine says my MP3 player is 100% when its almost flat
and I actually just plugged my my D3100 into the pc and it said 100% when i have been talking photos using the flash and loads of shots without for the past few days.

Using the camera as a card read is amazingly slow it would annoy the hell out of me.


my battery was bad until I charged it a few times
 

Mediaman09

Senior Member
Card formatted with the camera uses fat32 file system is fully compatible with windows

I wouldn't take any notice of the battery level displayed in windows mine says my MP3 player is 100% when its almost flat
and I actually just plugged my my D3100 into the pc and it said 100% when i have been talking photos using the flash and loads of shots without for the past few days.

Using the camera as a card read is amazingly slow it would annoy the hell out of me.


my battery was bad until I charged it a few times


Thanks for this observations. I can rely on the camera itself to give me true battery. As to the card, I will need to troubleshoot further why the pc isn't recognizing the cards

As to slow transfer speed via cable, point taken. I have not personally noticed that yet..... but i have only transferred small quantities of pictures to date.
 

pedroj

Senior Member
You can buy fast card readers and fast cards...I shoot surfing and ballet sometimes over a 1000 shots raw and fine hook them up to the pc and go and have a mug of coffee...with film we waited up to a week...Just relax it's not a big deal..

Simple solution....BUY A SPARE BATTERY OR 2
 

westmill

Banned
I seem to remember having a simlar problem. The pc wouldnt reconise the card from my Olympus E1.
My freind fixed it for me in 2 miniutes lol. He downloaded fat 32 files into my PC. Problem solved.
 

Mediaman09

Senior Member
I did some further research, and have concluded, my issue is newer media vs older hardware. The main media card I have is a 16GB SDHC card. I suspect its as simple as some readers have issues with the capacity.
After rebooting with a DELL firmeware upgrade for the reader, the internal reader now recognizes the 16GB 400x SDHC card... but the external readers (Dell 2407 monitor, and Lexar USB 2.0 Multi-Card Reader) do not, and I suspect never will.

I may pick up a another SDHC reader at some point, but for now, with 1 of 3 readers working, its good enough. And I bougtth camera with two batteries so I am good there two re the cable option.

Thanks again to all who chimed in. Time to figure out the other camera features..
 

CHAOS5

New member
I always take the card out and download the pix from the card into my pc. That battery life on the camera has been great and so has the availability on the card.
 
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